Students get in on the act for 'The 39 Steps'

For the past six weeks, students from Aliso Niguel and Dana Hills high schools have been preparing a production of “The 39 Steps,” the stage adaptation of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name.

Student director Megan Forster, a Dana Hills senior, said she always wanted to direct her own play and found the opportunity with “The 39 Steps.”

“The play literally fell into my lap,” she said. “I picked it because it's a fast-paced comedy that experiments with movement and imagined surroundings. I wanted to do a comedy that's creative and invites the actors to evoke the setting and props.”

First, Forster – whose stepdad, Jeremy Golden, is Aliso Niguel High School's theater director – secured Aliso Niguel's theater as the performance venue. The school also paid for the rights, scripts and costumes and will receive all proceeds from the performances.

Then Forster hand-picked her cast consisting of four other 12th-grade students: Aubrey Rhodes, Lucy Reidling and John Carroll from Dana Hills High School and Tristen Ross from Aliso Niguel High School.

“I picked them because I have known them for years, and they are all easy to work with, quick thinkers and good at improv comedy,” Forster said.

The story follows Richard Hannay (Carroll), a man framed for murder who travels throughout Europe to solve the crime and clear his name.

“He runs into lots of funny people, which makes for great comedy,” said Rhodes, who portrays the three women with whom Hannay pursues relationships.

The play is designed for the cast members – with the exception of the actor playing Hannay – to portray multiple characters, as many as 14.

Reidling said that it is challenging to keep track of all of her characters, along with their distinct personas, styles and accents.

The play also includes gender reversals. One of Reidling's roles is the male professor Jordan, the unassuming villain. Meanwhile, Ross plays the professor's wife, Mrs. Jordan.

“Playing professor Jordan is fun because he is a caricature who is completely not me,” Reidling said. “You get to step out of the boundary of yourself and have a lot of fun with it.”

While directing her own play is a dream come true for Forster, she acknow-ledges the difficulty of coordinating with four students in the cast and about 20 more behind the scenes.

“I've learned that being director goes beyond having a vision and directing the cast,” she said. “You have to call people and coordinate everything. A director also needs good managing skills to bring people together.”

Students are responsible for every aspect of the production, from lighting and sound to publicity and marketing.